Bruges and West Flanders | Page 6

pardon to Burchard, on
condition that he kept the peace. According to another account, his
demeanour was so unbending that the Erembalds left his presence full
of angry suspicions, which they communicated to their friends.

Whatever may have happened, they were bent on mischief. Burchard
was sent for, and a secret consultation was held, after which Burchard
and a chosen few assembled in a house on the Bourg and arranged their
plans. This was on the night of March 1, 1127.
[Illustration: BRUGES. Quai du Rosaire.]
At break of day next morning a cold, heavy mist hung low over Bruges,
and in the Bourg everything was shrouded in darkness. But already
some poor men were waiting in the courtyard of the Loove, to whom
Charles gave alms on his way to early Mass in the Church of St.
Donatian. Then he went along a private passage which led into the
church, and knelt in prayer before the Lady Altar. It was his custom to
give help to the needy when in church, and he had just put some money
into the hands of a poor woman, when suddenly she called out: 'Beware,
Sir Count!' He turned quickly round, and there, sword in hand, was
Burchard, who had stolen up the dim aisle to where Charles was
kneeling. The next moment Burchard struck, and Charles fell dead
upon the steps of the altar.
Then followed a scene of wild confusion. The woman ran out into the
Bourg, calling loudly that the Count was slain. In the midst of the
uproar some of the royal household fled in terror, while others who
entered the church were butchered by the Erembalds, who next attacked
the Loove, and, having pillaged it, rushed over Bruges, slaughtering
without mercy all who dared to oppose them.
After some time one of the Count's servants ventured to cover the dead
body with a winding-sheet, and to surround it with lighted tapers; and
there it remained lying on the pavement, until at last the Erembalds,
who were afraid to bury it in Bruges lest the sight of the tomb of
Charles the Good should one day rouse the townsmen to avenge his
death, sent a message to Ghent, begging the Abbot of St. Peter's to take
it away and bury it in his own church. The Abbot came to Bruges, and
before dawn the body of the murdered Count was being stealthily
carried along the aisles of St. Donatian's, when a great crowd rushed in,
declaring that the bones of Charles must be allowed to rest in peace at
Bruges. The arches rang with cries, chairs were overturned, stools and

candlesticks were thrown about, as the people, pressing and struggling
round the Abbot and his servants, told Bertulf, with many an oath, that
he must yield to their wishes. At last the Provost submitted, and on the
morrow, just two days after the murder, the body of Charles was buried
before the Lady Altar, on the very spot, it is said, where the statue of
Van Eyck now stands under the trees in the Bourg.
The triumph of the Erembalds was short, for the death of Charles the
Good was terribly avenged by his friends, who came to Bruges at the
head of a large force. A fierce struggle took place at the Rue de l'Âne
Aveugle, where many were slain. The Erembalds were driven into the
Bourg, the gates of which they shut; but an entrance was forced, and,
after desperate fighting, some thirty of them, all who remained alive,
were compelled to take refuge, first in the nave and then in the tower of
the Church of St. Donatian, where, defending themselves with the
courage of despair, they made a last stand, until, worn out by fatigue
and hunger, they surrendered and came down. Bertulf the Provost,
Burchard, and a few of the other ringleaders had fled some days before,
and so escaped, for a time at least, the fate of their companions, who,
having been imprisoned in a dungeon, were taken to the top of the
church tower and flung down one by one on to the stones of the Bourg.
'Their bodies,' says Mr. Gilliat-Smith, 'were thrown into a marsh
beyond the village of St. André, and for years afterwards no man after
nightfall would willingly pass that way.' In the Church of St. Sauveur
there is a costly shrine containing what are said to be the bones of
Charles the Good, taken from their first resting-place, at which twice
every year a festival is held in commemoration of his virtues.

THE BÉGUINAGE--CHURCHES--THE RELIC OF THE HOLY
BLOOD
CHAPTER III
THE BÉGUINAGE--CHURCHES--THE RELIC OF THE HOLY
BLOOD

Bruges is one of the most Catholic towns in Catholic Flanders.
Convents and religious houses of all sorts have always